


A Metagamer's Nightmare

by GaBeRock



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Academy Era, Alternate Universe, Duel Monsters, Gen, LitTCG, Self-Insert, Shounen, rational
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-18
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:20:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25209853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GaBeRock/pseuds/GaBeRock
Summary: What if playing a children’s card game was like a fight in a Shounen anime? What if it took actual effort to play stronger cards, and duelists risked their lives just to summon their boss monsters? Nick has his advantages, as a duelist from our world suddenly transported to Yugioh GX. But if he wants to survive Duel Academy, he’ll need to step up his game. Character tags will be added as characters appear. OC/SI
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	1. Chapter 1

I’d always imagined that if, somehow, I was transported into the world of Yugioh, I’d be one of the best Duel Monsters players around. I didn’t have any YCS or World Championship wins to support that belief. Hell, I’d never even won first place at my locals. But compared to normal summoning Celtic Guardian into attack position with no follow-up? I figured I would be Babe Ruth showing up to a middle school softball game. Unfortunately for me, in a world with actual magic, there was more to Duel Monsters than just netdecking the meta.

“Bro, you okay?”

A blurry figure in a yellow jacket stood over me. I pushed my glasses back down from my forehead, and the figure resolved into the figure of a short, Japanese, teenager, one with stereotypically dark hair and eyes. Familiarity and confusion warred in the back of my mind.

I groaned and sat up. A weight on my left arm drew my attention. A duel disk? I’d always wanted one, so that was awesome, but when the hell did I put it on?

“What happened?” I asked.

“How much of our duel do you remember?”

“Duel? What?”

The teenager frowned. “You said you wanted to try out a new summoning method. We set up a duel, you summoned a few monsters, then yelled out ‘Proxy Synchro Summon!’ at the top of your lungs. Then you collapsed. Now we’re here. Do you not remember any of that? Because if you don’t, we might need to get you some medical attention.”

A duel? I looked at the duel disk. No spells or traps. Nothing in the graveyard. [[Blackwing - Aurora the Northern Lights]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Aurora_the_Northern_Lights) on the field. On instinct, I checked the banished zone. [[Blackwing - Ghibli the Searing Wind]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Ghibli_the_Searing_Wind) and [[Blackwing - Kochi the Daybreak]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Kochi_the_Daybreak).

These were all shit cards, but… it was starting to come back to me. It had been my dream to become the first duelist to summon a ‘Synchro’ monster, and I'd been trying to figure out how to do it for months. Then, I’d had a breakthrough: [Blackwing - Aurora the Northern Lights.]

But… that wasn’t true. Synchro monsters were easy to summon; every rulebook told you how to do it. And it wasn’t like Konami would print cards that literally couldn’t be used, tournament prizes aside.

I felt the onset of a headache as two sets of memories warred in my mind.

I’d played Yu-gi-oh as a kid, before ditching it as I entered college to focus on my mechanical engineering coursework.

I was so obsessed with Duel Monsters that I’d applied to Duel Academy to make it a career.

Both statements were true, yet self evidently contradictory. I gasped, as the pressure in my head rose.

“Bro? Bro!?” The stranger-- Sadao, my best friend-- grabbed my shoulders. “Shit, we need to get you to the infirmary. I knew this was a bad idea.” He began the process of dragging me into a standing position.

I tried to get my legs under me. A bolt of fresh pain lanced through my head, and I collapsed, bringing Sadao down with me. I mewled in pain as fragments of memories warred with each other.

With the increasingly small portion of my brain not occupied with pain, I noticed something. Four duel monsters cards on the floor. Three face down, one face up. It was a synchro monster-- [[Blackwing - Gram the Shining Star]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Gram_the_Shining_Star). A single word flashed through my mind.

'SYNCHRONIZATION.'

I knew what I had to do. I scrabbled for the card.

“Nick!?” Sadao’s voice had become increasingly panicked.

“Need… to finish… the summon.”

“But--” Sadao began. Then his expression firmed. “Got it.” He pulled me up into a sitting position, then ran to the other side of the arena.

“Duel!” he called, activating his duel disk. Holograms appeared on his side of the field; monsters and face-down cards.

I had six-- I grimaced again, at another spike of pain. Six cards. It was my second turn-- turn-- turn-- turn--

I slapped myself to break out of the loop. It was my second turn. There were no cards in my extra deck. That didn’t compute. Gram would have started in my… my hand. No wonder my attempt had failed.

With shaking hands, I inserted ~~it~~ **him** into the extra deck.

“I activate Aurora’s effect.” I took a deep breath. “Proxy Synchro Summon!” I announced. Gram went out of my extra deck, and into my banished zone. Aurora clad itself in holographic armor, and I collapsed.

The pain had gone, but in its place exhaustion was left behind.

Sadao ran over to me. “Nick! You okay?”

“I’m… better,” I managed.

“Holy shit. Ho-ly shit. You actually did it.”

“Barely.”

He turned to face the field, taking in my monster. “What went wrong, the first time?”

One part of me, the part that was used to easy-to-read rulebooks in convenient starter deck packages, wanted to tell him that synchro monster had to be put in the extra deck; that they needed a tuner and one or more non-tuners, and that were summoned kind of like contact fusion monsters. That my ‘Proxy Synchro Summon,’ as I’d called it, wasn’t worthy of the name-- that it was just a temporary effect on a terrible card.

The other part of me, the part that was used to viewing Duel Monsters as a cutthroat scientific discipline, wanted to keep him in the dark, for all that he was supposedly my best friend.

I compromised. “Wasn’t synchronized enough the first time. Also, synchro monsters go in the extra deck.”

Sadao let out a short bark of laughter. “I fucking told you! Why else would Aurora’s effect say banish ‘from the extra deck’ you nimrod!”

I wanted to tell him that I could have just tried it both ways, but that wasn’t true, was it? I had barely survived trying it this way; few people would be crazy enough to try out an unknown summoning method twice.

It was a sobering realization. People bet their lives on a children’s card game. Not just in shadow duels over the fate of the universe, but just to figure out what I considered basic game mechanics. I had bet my life on a children’s card game. What the hell, me?

Sadao leaned over me and reached out a hand. This time, I had the wherewithal to grasp it. He pulled me up, and I staggered to my feet. I breathed a long sigh. The longer I kept the secrets of synchro monsters secret, the greater the advantage I had. But I still had to tell my parents about my near brush with death. A memory flashed in my mind. My mother, kneading dough for tortillas. The same memory across two different worlds.

Oh.

I looked down at my hands, and they were mine. The same folds and creases and veins.

In the process of synchronizing, I had been synchronized across realities. Two Nicks, one body. Or maybe… no, I shook my head. No use wondering whether my other body was also dealing with this same situation in reverse.

I went to pick up the cards I’d dropped earlier. My future was in front of me, and my past behind me. There would be no more use in navel-gazing.

Later that day I searched through my collection. Sadao had been dissuaded from trying out his own experiments with synchro summoning by a promise to tell him everything at some later time. For now, I had some deckbuilding to do.

The clothes and location had long since tipped me off to the fact that I was in the world of Yugioh GX. But my collection didn’t seem to reflect that. I had synchro monsters, obviously, but I also had XYZ monsters, Pendulum Monsters, and Link Monsters.

There were even cards of totally unfamiliar varieties; some had clear backgrounds, or checkerboard backgrounds, while others were double-sided, or had two cards printed on the same face. The variety reminded me of Magic the Gathering, actually, and some part of me itched to experiment with them. But given how my last experiment with a new card type had almost ended, it was probably for the best that those cards stay safely tucked inside my trade binder. It wasn’t like anyone knew how to use them, so there wasn’t any risk of them being used against me.

Actually, why in the world was Industrial Illusions printing literally unusable cards? Was Pegasus just fucking with us, or was there some deeper meaning?

Anyways, I recognized many of the archetypes in my collection-- Madolche, Sylvan, Gemini, Fur Hire, and Synchron, among others. Some had been in my other life’s collection; most hadn’t. But something had drawn both versions of me to Blackwings, and they were by far the most complete archetype. There was of course the temptation to jury rig an abomination of a Red-Eyes/Dragon Ruler/Dragonmaid/Hieratic/Chaos deck, but I figured it would be better to stick with what I knew, at least for now.

That, and I had an extremely unpleasant memory of passing out after trying to tribute summon a [Red-eyes B. Dragon] as a kid. The consequences of playing with unfamiliar cards were well known to me; familiarity beat sheer power in a world where a magical children’s card game could put you in the ICU for exceeding your grasp.

Eventually, I settled on my build. This world’s Nick, the one who’s memories and thought patterns were less dominant, had built his deck around the main-deck Blackwings. [[Blackwing - Hillen the Tengu-wind]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Hillen_the_Tengu-wind), [[Blackwing - Abrolhos the Megaquake](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Abrolhos_the_Megaquake)], [[Blackwing - Boreas the Sharp]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Boreas_the_Sharp), and a number of other, similarly terrible cards. To his (my?) credit, he’d at least included trios of [[Blackwing - Kalut the Moon Shadow]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Kalut_the_Moon_Shadow) and [[Black Whirlwind]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Whirlwind), but it was obvious he was playing an unoptimized version of a deck already gimped by lack of extra deck outs. No wonder he was in Ra Yellow.

But then again, there had been hundreds of other Blackwing players on the internet for me to talk to; he’d had to figure it all out for himself. And now I was in the same position. But really, I was in no position to bitch, given the sheer power-creep induced beatdown I was going to lay down. Nadja, that Obelisk asshole, would never look down on us ever again. For the glory of Ra!

(Where the hell had that come from?)

I spent some time thinking about card ratios and calculating draw probabilities. I’d dithered on whether to include [[Black-Winged Dragon]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Black-Winged_Dragon) because it was honestly a pretty mediocre card. (Wasn’t that a signer dragon? How had I got my grubby hands on it? Eh. If I owned a copy, it was probably more common than I thought.) But ultimately, I decided that it went pretty well with [[Blackbird Close]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackbird_Close) and [[Blackwing - Auster the South Wind]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Auster_the_South_Wind). It still kind of pissed me off that Crow’s boss monster wasn’t even technically a Blackwing, but whatever. It was just here to get summoned by [Blackbird Close] anyways.

Anyways, I ended up deciding on a build I was fairly happy with. I’d been out of the game long enough I had no clue which engines and tech were popular, but I at least knew that [[Blackwing Full Armor Master]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_Full_Armor_Master) was our new boss monster, and [[Blackwing - Simoon the Poison Wind]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Simoon_the_Poison_Wind) was our new best friend. I considered splashing in raid raptor support, or link monsters, but I figured baby steps would be best, for now. I could innovate more after I’d figured out Link Summoning and XYZ summoning. Hell, I hadn’t even technically performed a Synchro Summon, yet.

All that left me with a pretty simple vanilla Blackwing list. I didn’t bother to optimize it further; that could come after I’d actually managed to synchro summon, and had at least some idea of what the duel Academy metagame looked like. And anyways, it’s not like I could be threatened by any of the obsolete stratagems used by the students of Duel Academy… right? As much as the anime had focused on the “Heart of the Cards,” my memories of this world hadn’t seemed to indicate draw probabilities could somehow be influenced by sheer grit.

“Hey, Sadao” I called. My best friend (and, evidently, roommate) looked over at me from behind his own trade binder. (As an aside, it was a bit surreal for me to be somewhere where Yugioh was ‘cool.’ In fact, we were technically studying right now.) “Duel?”  
He laughed. “Are you crazy? After what happened the last time?”

“Come on, I just want a tabletop game. And I know what I’m doing now. And--” I added, with a grin, “if you play me, you’ll get to see Synchro Summoning in action.” I could see he was tempted, so I went for the kill. “And if you win, I’ll teach you how to do it.”

He considered my words, then said, “fine. But we’ll do it by the infirmary, just in case anything goes wrong.”

I smiled, as much at the fact that he’d accepted my duel as the fact that it was just so ridiculous that playing a card game could send me to the hospital. Well, I guess it wasn’t that ridiculous; I’d played some extremely heated games of Egyptian Rat Screw before. “Let’s go, then.”

He grabbed his deck, and I grabbed mine. He gave me a suspicious look when I reached for my duel disk out of reflex, so I left it on my desk. (A part of me still squealed with glee at the idea that duel disks were real.)

It was a short walk to the Ra Yellow Dorm Infirmary; we weren’t Slifer Red peasants, after all, who had to go to the main facility if they wanted treatment. There was a table set up in front of it for situations like this one. It had even been recently deep cleaned; some weak-willed duelist had probably thrown up while testing a new strategy.

We sat, and then played rock-paper-scissors to see who went first. I idly noticed that I felt no anxiety at playing with unsleeved cards-- despite the wear both our cards had seen, our collections were pristine. In this world, Duel Monsters weren’t made from simple cardstock.

“Draw!” announced Sadao.

That was another difference from my other life-- we weren’t playing with the rules I was used to, but instead the rules of the early Duel Monsters anime. Or rather, the standardized versions of those rules. There would be no targeting the moon with monster attacks, anyways. So that meant Sadoa drew on his first turn, and we both had 4000 lifepoints.

“[[Graceful Charity]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Graceful_Charity). Discard [[Negate Attack]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Negate_Attack), [[Boar Soldier]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Boar_Soldier). Normal Summon [[Gene-Warped Warwolf]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Gene-Warped_Warwolf). Set two cards face down in the spell/trap zone. End turn. You move.” He smiled, smug.

Sadao and I had played a number of times, and he’d almost always got the best of me. Turns like this were why. This world had a limited list, but no banlist, meaning that a number of extremely powerful, but common cards would menace me. And in particular, Sadao’s strategy of 4-star beatsticks paired with grave revival, floodgates, and battle traps meant I was facing down a formidable backrow. But with the tweaks I’d just made, I was pretty formidable myself. And since he’d been willing to discard his [Negate Attack], that meant he almost certainly had [Mirror Force] or one of its derivatives facedown; he had a love of those cards that bordered on pathological.

“Draw! [[Solemn Judgment]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Solemn_Judgment) joined my hand of [[Mirror Force]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Mirror_Force), [[Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Gale_the_Whirlwind), [[Blackwing - Oroshi the Squall]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Oroshi_the_Squall), and two [Blackwing - Simoon the Poison Wind].”

“During your standby phase, I activate the continuous trap card [[Vanity’s Emptiness]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Vanity%27s_Emptiness), which prevents either player, by which I mean you, from special summoning.”

Shit. “Don’t you want to see a synchro summon?” I teased.

He grinned. “What I want to do is win.”

With my changes, nothing in my deck could swing over his 2000 attack+ monsters, except gale after halving their attack. But I knew he had a [[Skill Drain]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Skill_Drain) in there, and anyways, I knew he had a battle trap facedown. But I did have [Solemn Judgment] in hand; if I could bait him into summoning a monster, I could send it to the graveyard, and take [Vanity’s Emptiness] along with it. Alternatively, if I thinned my deck a little, I could draw into spell/trap destruction. And of course, I had a mirror force sitting in hand, if I could bait him into an attack.

“Since I have no monsters on the field, I can activate the effect of [Blackwing - Simoon the Poison Wind] in my hand.” I revealed the card, giving Sadao a chance to read it.

“Not a Blackwing you’ve used before. And I can see why! He’s a one-for-one with sixteen hundred attack that takes away a quarter of your life. At least he doesn’t waste your normal summon.”

I smiled. This kid didn’t know what was coming for him. “I banish another Simoon from my hand and search my deck for [Black Whirlwind], playing it on the field. Immediately after, I normal summon Simoon, activating Whirlwind’s effect.”

“Double bluff, sucka! I knew you had a plan. I activate [[Dust Tornado]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Dust_Tornado), targeting [Black Whirlwind]!”

His card destroyed mine, in the process stopping its effect from resolving. And, in addition, sending his [Vanity’s Emptiness] to the grave.

“You’ve made a terrible mistake.” I grinned.

“Pshaw. What are you gonna do, tribute summon for [[Blackwing - Elphin the Raven]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Elphin_the_Raven) and attack over me? Or maybe synchro summon one of your terrifying ‘Synchro Monsters’? Ooooh, I’m so scared.” If I’d suspected a mirror force before, now I was certain.

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do, scrub. Since I have another Blackwing on the field with a different name, I can special summon [Blackwing - Oroshi the Squall].” I braced myself. “Level one tuner: Oroshi. Level six nontuner: Simoon. Synchro Summon Seven! [[Blackwing Tamer - Obsidian Hawk Joe]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_Tamer_-_Obsidian_Hawk_Joe)!” I pulled the card from the extra deck and smacked it down onto the field.

Nausea overtook me immediately.

“Not the cards, not the cards!” yelled Sadao.

I leaned away from the table, sick rising in my throat. It took me a few moments, but I brought it under control.

“You good?”

“Yeah,” I burped, then grimaced at the foul taste of the stomach acid.

I gave Sadao a chance to look over the card as I recuperated.

“Yo, this is fucking broke. You just get this card for free? No poly, no ritual spell, no nothing?”

“Yep. I’ll activate its effect too, by the way, special summoning a level five or above winged beast from my graveyard to put Simoon in face-up defense position on the field.” I could go into attack position and YOLO for game in the hopes that his facedowns were a bluff, but this would be a hedge against both mind control and mirror force.

“Then, I’ll special summon [Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind] in face-up defense position because I have another blackwing with a different name on the field. I’ll use its effect to halve the attack and defense of [Gene-Warped Warwolf].” I took a deep breath, and then another, to center myself.

Sadao looked at me, confused, and then intrigued, and then… afraid?

“Level three tuner: Gale. Level seven nontuner: Hawk Joe. SYNCHRO SUMMON TEN!”

I pulled out [Blackwing Full Armor Master] from my extra deck. I hesitated for a moment, and then put it on the field.

It would be a lie to say I blacked out. Rather, what happened was that I deliberately suppressed the memory of events immediately following the summon. As it was, the next thing I remembered clearly was the tail-end of an ass-reaming from the Ra Yellow Dorm nurse.

As soon as the nurse left, Sadao slipped me my deck. He leaned over, conspiratorily. “Nick, that card is the tits, but maybe work on smaller ‘Synchro’ summons first. Food for thought.” He clapped my shoulder. “See ya.” He stood up to walk away from my sickbed.

“You don’t want to know how Synchro Summoning works?” I asked, confused. He had, after all, technically won the bet.

He paused, shooting an inscrutable look at my face. He shook his head. “Nah. I can tell it’s not my style. And anyways--” he cracked a smile, “I don’t want to spend all my time throwing up. Later”

That left me alone with my cards. The duel had been a sobering experience. With no “Heart of the Cards,” I’d expected an easy victory against Sadao. But Duel Monsterswas as much about the mental game as the actual game, and he’d forced me to make a play my mind simply couldn’t handle, netting him the win regardless of the actual cards present on the field and in my hands. The ability to synchro summon still gave me a massive advantage, but for now, I could only synchro summon maybe once a duel.

Another though, previously suppressed, made itself known. Working on my deck had technically been homework, but I also had actual homework too. This sucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Every duel in this story will be fully simulated (although not necessarily fully written out). I will build each duelist a deck, randomize it, and play it in order. Some duelists will get the ability to mulligan their initial deck order to simulate the ‘Heart of the Cards’. I will make note of this in the Author’s notes, if applicable.
> 
> Current decks: https://imgur.com/gallery/DwOczVO
> 
> Nick W:L::0:1
> 
> (If it’s not clear, this story is an AU of Yugioh GX. All the same things have happened up to this point, but worldbuilding details are different. Also, I’ve mucked with the timeline because I’m too lazy to stick to it)


	2. Chapter 2

My first class of the day was Professor Stein’s. A tall, youthful man with long, wavy hair and a pair of foppish round spectacles, he was a gallant figure who drew many of the incoming female (and occasionally male) students into sighing and swooning in his presence. That was, up until their first lesson with him.

Why would someone choose to go to a high school entirely and exclusively focused on dueling? How could there possibly be enough information to cover, that a student could take classes for three years without running out of content?

Well, as it turned out, Duel Monsters cards were anti-memetic. You could write down their details in a book just fine, or list them for auction by their names, but storing card effects and images on a server typically lead to crashes and data corruption. That meant that there weren’t any easily-searchable catalogs to look through; if you wanted to find every level four, DARK Winged Beast monster, you had to look through an encyclopedia and note them down yourself. Plus, opponents technically didn’t have to tell you how their cards worked until they were activated. Playing in large arenas, it was unfeasible to walk over and read an opponent’s card text, and anti-cheat functionality in every duel disk made it unnecessary for an opponent to verify how a card operated.

Thus, any self-respecting duelist had to memorize on the order of a thousand cards. A good duelist, three thousand cards. And a graduate of the prestigious Duel Academy Central was expected to be able to recite the names, attributes, levels, types, effect text, attack, and defense of no less than five thousand cards.

It didn’t help that almost a thousand of those cards were utterly generic normal monsters.

Stein was the teacher in charge of relaying that information. It was therefore no surprise that he was hated.

He was also my favorite professor, and in turn, made no secret of the fact that I was one of his favorite students.

“Mr. Garcia, I notice that you didn’t turn in your homework.” His question was even and dispassionate, but the very fact that he’d asked it betrayed his favoritism. If a Slifer Sucker had done the same, they would have simply received a zero for the grade.

“I had a medical emergency that precluded its completion,” I said, with a straight face. We both knew that ‘medical emergency’ was code for a Duel Monsters related incident. But since dueling wasn’t an acceptable excuse for missing work, and a medical emergency was, he let this statement pass without comment.

“I understand. You know my policy on excused late work?”

I did, not that I’d used it before. He liked me for a reason. “Ten percent off per day it’s late, to a maximum of thirty percent, or a pop quiz to substitute for it.”

“And which would you prefer?”

“Pop quiz, please.”

“Very well. List a Winged Beast monster of each level, from one to twelve. You have one minute.”

I smiled. A quiz that appeared difficult, but was actually tailored specifically to my strengths. Stein had been the one to introduce me to Blackwings, after all. Well, introduce this world’s version of me to Blackwings, anyways. Regardless, it was this world’s version that mattered, because I don’t think I’d have managed the pop quiz otherwise; for all that I loved winged beasts, it was pretty tricky to list them off the top of my head.

“Starting from level one: [[D. D. Crow]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/D.D._Crow); [[Yata-garasu]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Yata-Garasu); [[Crane Crane]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Crane_Crane); [[Harpie Lady]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Harpie_Lady); [[Peacock]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Peacock); [[Raiza the Storm Monarch]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Raiza_the_Storm_Monarch); [[Dark Simorgh]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Simorgh); [[Dark Nephthys]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Nephthys); [[Assault Blackwing - Kusanagi the Gathering Storm]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Assault_Blackwing_-_Kusanagi_the_Gathering_Storm); [[Blackwing - Aurora the Northern Lights]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Aurora_the_Northern_Lights); [[Assault Blackwing - Onimaru the Divine Thunder]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Assault_Blackwing_-_Onimaru_the_Divine_Thunder).”

“Very good Mr. Garcia. Full marks.”

I sat down and shot a smug grin to Sadao. He scoffed. “Fuck’n teacher’s pet.”

“You couldn’t have named half those cards, and you know it.”

We returned our attention to the floor as Stein began his lesson.

“I trust you’ve all memorized the cards mentioned in last night’s assignment, so this session will be spent tracing out their relations. First, the Armed Dragon line.”

He wrote three names on the board. “Our level 3 dragon becomes the level 5 dragon becomes the level 7 dragon.” He wrote another name. “And the level 7 dragon can, in turn, be tributed to create the level 10 dragon, a formidable beast indeed. Who can name a card that combos with the armed dragons?” Two hands shot up, among them mine.

“Yes, Nadja?”

The Obelisk blue girl shot me a smug look, before returning her attention to the professor.

“[[Ojamatch]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Ojamatch) is on-theme support for the Armed Dragon archetype, and links it to the Ojama archetype.”

“Excellent. And which of the Armed Dragons is the most powerful?”

At this, a number of hands shot up. Stein pointed to some Red way in the back. “Yes?”

“Uh, [[Armed Dragon Lvl 10]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Armed_Dragon_LV10)?” A number of hands went down, from the other students who had agreed with him.

“Why?”

“Well, it’s got a really good effect, right?”

Stein scoffed, refusing to design him with an answer. He pointed to another student.

“[[Armed dragon Lvl 5]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Armed_Dragon_LV5), because it has a good balance between its power and its difficulty to summon.”

“Not quite, Bastion, but closer.” Bastion sat down, and I shook my head. He was definitely good, but not quite what it took to push Ra Yellow to greatness/He was one of the more important Yugioh GX side characters, but still too naive. I winced at the sudden cognitive dissonance.

Finally, Stein pointed to me. I knew the answer he wanted. [[Armed Dragon Lvl 5]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Armed_Dragon_LV5) was only slightly better than a beatstick, but [[Armed Dragon Lvl 7]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Armed_Dragon_LV7) was a win condition. And without my experience in the other world, that’s the answer I would have given. But it wasn’t the truth.

“[[Dark Armed Dragon]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Dark_Armed_Dragon) is trivial to summon, especially in decks with graveyard recursion, and is a win condition all on its own. It is by far the best Armed Dragon.”

“Interesting answer, Nick. I would have gone with Armed Dragon lvl7 myself, seeing as it can be searched from the deck by lvl5 and is in its own right a win condition. But it’s no surprise a DARK duelist like yourself would prefer the flexibility offered by [Dark Armed Dragon].”

Some part of me was a little disappointed that he didn’t tack on a “five points to Ra Yellow,” at the end of his sentence, but then again, if I also got merged with a version of me attending Hogwarts I would certainly go insane.

“Keep that in mind, class. No card is evaluated in a vacuum; the best card is the best card for your deck.”

Well, no. The best card was Pot of Greed, but I understood where he was coming from.

The class continued from there, with Stein going on to talk about several other families of Dragon monsters and, if applicable, their support. I occasionally competed with Nadja over who could suck up to Stein more, but ultimately the class was unusually boring. Well, no. The class was exactly as boring as it always was, it was me that had changed. My mechanical engineering classes had required plenty of memorization, but it hadn’t been nearly as mindless. I gave an internal wince at the idea of memorizing literally thousands of more cards, the vast majority of which were totally useless and extremely unlikely to see play. But it would be pretty embarrassing to lose an otherwise winnable duel because a fodder card had an effect I wasn’t expecting.

At the end of the hour, I stood up to stretch, grateful for the class to finally be over. The college-style auditorium seating duel academy favored was better than the desks I’d sat at in high school, but still rather uncomfortable after long periods of time.

Sadao and I followed the crowd leaving the classroom, only to be accosted by Nadja.

“You. Me. Duel.”

The much shorter teenager tried to loom over me. Well, I was a teenager too, but still. The cognitive dissonance made a reappearance. On one hand, she was a cute teenager that played Duel Monsters. A few years below my strike zone, of course, but still. Traditionally speaking, I’d be happy (and a little flustered) at the challenge. On the other hand, she was my most hated rival in Duel Academy. I was still happy at her challenge, but for entirely different reasons. “You’re on. This evening, 5pm?”

She scoffed. “No. Now.”

“We’ve got class. You should know, because we’re going to the same one.” I was actually looking forward to it, a little. Summoning Theory was, naturally, one of my favorites.

“Crowley will understand if an obelisk blue has other pressing commitments.” And he would, too, the bastard. Not that I could really bring myself to dislike him; he was another one of my favorites due to the subject matter he taught. For such an orthodox duelist, he knew a lot about the mindset necessary to bring out big, imposing boss monsters without throwing up or fainting. Obviously, he had no idea I existed. “Naturally, he would also understand that a Blue might require the time of other, inferior students, and excuse them accordingly.”

Well, with a slight against my honor like that one, I couldn’t back down, and I told her as much. Besides, it’s not like we were playing for stakes other than our rankings on the school leaderboard; this was just some weird dominance ritual.

“See ya later, then.” Sadao wished me off, and Nadja and I made our way to a nearby duel arena.

Halfway there, I realized I’d never actually gotten around to optimizing my deck. Shit. Nadja played… Princess burn? At least I had that going for me, although on the other hand burn decks were better with only 4000 lifepoints to go through.

We made our way to opposite ends of the dueling arena, and I steeled myself for the engagement. The coinflip went in Nadja’s favor, and she went first.

“Draw!” She said. A brief glance at her hand later, she began. “Tremendous fire!”

A spell card appeared on the field; a rapidly growing blaze. I watched in awe, for a moment, still amazed by the holographic technology. It was a bad time to be distracted. The flame hit, and for all that my clothes weren’t singed and no burns scarred my skin, I felt the loss of that thousand lifepoints in my soul. I gasped, unable to stop myself. Nadja smirked; she hadn’t reacted at all to the 500 damage the card had inflicted on her. That was what it took to be an obelisk blue, I knew.

“I set a monster card and a spell or trap card facedown, and end my turn.”

I drew. Two [[Blackbird Close]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackbird_Close), a [[Blackwing - Pinaka the Waxing Moon]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Pinaki_the_Waxing_Moon), a [[Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Gale_the_Whirlwind), a [[Blackwing - Bora the Spear]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Bora_the_Spear) and an [[Allure of Darkness]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Allure_of_Darkness). An extremely solid hand, all told.

It had been a month since I’d dueled her last. It had been a close, but embarrassing loss for me, as she’d managed to stall me out long enough to end the duel with the burn damage from an [[Ebon Magician Curran]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Ebon_Magician_Curran). And across the ten turns that duel had lasted, she hadn’t played a single face down card. That made me extremely wary. I would probably have no choice but to summon into it, but at least I could hedge my bets and try to bait out a [Solemn Judgment] or spell/trap negation.

“[Allure of Darkness].” No response from Nadja.

I drew two cards, adding a [[Heavy Storm]](https://www.db.yugioh-card.com/yugiohdb/card_search.action?ope=2&cid=4891) and [[Blackwing - Zephros the Elite]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Blackwing_-_Zephyros_the_Elite) to my hand. Excellent. I’d planned to normal summon the Pinaki to hedge my bets with a floater, but heavy storm obviated that problem. So instead, I banished the Pinaki for Allure of Darkness’s cost, and then declared. “[Heavy Storm]!”

A whirlwind tore at the field. Nadja smirked. “You fool. You bozo. You absolute moron. I chain the quickplay spell card [[Poison of the Old Man]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Poison_of_the_Old_Man), to deal 800 damage directly to your lifepoints!”

My vision swam and blurred, as my lifepoints dropped further.

I tried to insert a card into the duel disk. “I normal summon Zeph--” no, that was wrong. Zephros was still in my hand. It was [Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind] that materialized onto the field. I felt a soothing feeling, like the hand of a friend on my back. And then the soothing feeling receded, as I realized the pain had made me misplay. Shit.

Okay, things weren’t as bad as they could have been. I’d planned to synchro 7 for Raikiri, bounce bora to hand for zephros, special summon zephros to the field, pop Nadja’s facedown with Raikiri, and attack face for game. But given the mental trauma I’d already suffered, If I’d tried to summon Raikiri I might have passed out by default. So I would work with what I had.

“I normal summon [Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind], I announced retroactively. Then, since I control another Blackwing monster with a different name, I can special summon [Blackwing - Bora the Spear] from my hand. Battle phase!”

Nadja smirked. “Oh, really? You sure you want to attack into my facedown? I don’t think you have the balls.”

I grimaced. I liked my Yugioh games safe. I liked my big boss monsters indestructible, and my opponents' field empty. But if I didn’t take risks, I would never bring glory to the name of Ra Yellow.

“Yes. Bora, attack the facedown monster!” Despite myself, I was slipping into the local vernacular. I wasn’t at the point where I was making up attack names, but it made no sense to give orders to my monsters like they were soldiers. Right?

The facedown flipped up, revealing a [[Princess of Tsurugi]](https://yugioh.fandom.com/wiki/Princess_of_Tsurugi). I grinned. Pathetic. “Since I have no facedown spell or trap cards, your [Princess of Tsurugi deals no burn damage]. And when Bora attacks a defense position monster, it deals piercing damage!” Bora flew forward, stabbing its spear first through the princess, and then through Nadja. With its 1700 attack, and the princesses’ 700 defense, that was a full 1000 damage to Nadja, lowering her down to 2500 total. “If only you had taken that old piece of advice: ‘physician, heal thyself!’ and used your [Poison of the Old Man] to heal 1200 LP instead.”

Nadja growled in response. “Make your move, Nick.”

“Gale, attack Nadja directly!”

Nadja growled again, as the blue blackwing (hey, I don’t paint the card out) inflicted another 1300 damage to her, leaving her with a measly 1200 LP left.

“Main phase 2. I set one card face down.” One [Blackbird Close] on the field, and one in my hand, to prepare for any eventualities. I considered synchroing 7, but ultimately dismissed the idea. Leaving myself open to a mind control or change of heart would be fatal. “I end my turn.”

“Draw!”

She looked at her hand, in what I recognized as desperation. It held no answers. Resigned to her fate, she announced, “Mama didn’t raise no quitter. I’ll normal summon [Ebon Magician Curran].”

With a measly 1200 attack, it wasn’t an out to my monsters. It wasn’t even a LIGHT monster that she could threaten to [Honest] me with. But I respected the grit it took to go out swinging.

“End turn,” she announced.

I drew another Gale, but didn’t bother playing it. With no cards in her backrow, it would just be hand trap bait, if she played any. By the same logic, it wasn’t even worth halving Curran’s attack with the Gale I already had on the field, and as much as I wanted to show her up with a synchro summon, there was no need to risk nausea and incapacitation just for the style points. Instead, I ended the duel with another two attacks-- Gale over Curran, and then Bora for face.

Her LP counter ticked down to zero, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Good game,” I offered. And I meant it, too. For all that I’d utterly dominated her deck, it somehow felt like a far more even struggle. It raised my estimation of her; her deck was terrible, but it was force of will that earnt Obelisk Blue students their respect, not simply a surplus of good cards. Had I lost this battle, I would have been on the floor. She’d just brushed off the pain like it was nothing.

“Don’t patronize me, fucker. If you do it again, I won’t include you in my excuse to Crowley.”

Oh yeah, I was still at school. My mind regeared from duelist mode to schoolboy mode, and again I faced down the surreality of going from what felt like a life-threatening battle to worrying about banal crap like attending class. Was this why Jaden was the way he was?

I followed her back to Crowley’s class, meekly accepted the teacher’s reprimand for showing up halfway through his class, and went to sit by Sadao.

“How’d it go dude?”

“I won, obviously.”

“Nice. What did you end up synchro summoning?”

“Nothing. Didn’t need to.” A small fib; I could have FTK’d her with a synchro summon if it wasn’t for my own weakness, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Aww, that’s boring. What’d you do her in with then. Sirocco? Elphin?”

“Don’t act like you didn’t go through my deck while I was out, dude.”

Sadao made a sheepish grin.

“For the record, it was just Bora and Gale. She’s a third rate duelist with a fourth rate deck.” Strangely, I meant it as a compliment. Second-rate duelists would have been the supporting characters in the anime, and first-rate duelists the protagonists. To be a third-rate duelist was still pretty impressive, given I probably sat around fifth- or sixth-rate. Of course, Sadao didn’t take it that way. “So you whipped her good!” Sadao made a whipping motion and sound effect.

“Sadao! Nick! Detention for interrupting my class. And another detention for you, Nick, for making me regret excusing your tardiness.”

Shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nadja’s deck: https://imgur.com/a/RqgAhXk
> 
> Nick W:L::1:1


	3. END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was thinking about this story and decided I didn't feel inspired enough to continue it. Instead, this chapter was modified to provide a concrete ending. This story will not be continued. I'm sorry.

Between my duel and the impromptu detentions, I was in no mood to pay attention to Crowler’s class. But given that obvious inattention could just end up increasing the length of my sentence, I was forced to sit up and at least appear alert.

On one hand, it was interesting information that playing singletons let duelists conserve energy that they could instead use to summon boss monsters. On the other hand, I found the information completely inapplicable; they could pry my playsets out of my cold, dead hands.

So, in short, it was a complete waste of my time to memorize the dozens of duel-energy-expenditure graphs Crowler showed off.

By the end of class, I was practically asleep. Sadao shook my shoulder to get me moving, and I packed up my mechanical pencil and blank notebook.

“What do you mean, your flight was canceled!”

Crowler’s voice might have put me to sleep, but him shouting definitely woke me up.

“Sounds like we should go,” murmured Sadao. I concurred. We made to follow the trickle of students still walking out of the auditorium until another shout from Crowler stopped us.

“Sadao, Nick, come down here this instant.”

I cursed under my breath. Whatever he wanted out of us couldn’t be good.

We walked back down the stairs to make our way to his desk. We stood, silent, in front of the imposing professor. He glanced between us,.

“You recently defeated Nadja in a duel, didn’t you Nick?”

“Yes?” Nadja had literally told him that at the start of the class. Why was he suddenly so interested?

“And you, Sadao. You’re the third rank duelist in Ra Yellow, no?”

“Yes."

“Hmm.” The calculating look on Crowler’s voice became a nasty smile.

“And have either of you ever tag dueled before?”

“A few times, Professor,” answered Sadao.

“Excellent. I had a tag duel scheduled, and a pair of tag duelists hired, but evidently they’re too scared to fly into our island due to some ‘duel energy invoked weather anomaly’.” His grin turned into a frown, and he muttered, “Feh. If a little weather scared them off, then they’re not worthy of dueling here anyways. At least I got my money for their flight back.” The grin returned. “Anyways, that leaves me looking for some tag duelists. And by that, I mean that you two will be dueling on my behalf.”

Sadao and I traded a look. “Professor...” I began. “I’m in no fit state to duel. I was recently in the infirmary for attempting a new summoning method.”

“Well that’s too bad, because you don’t have a choice. And besides,” Crowler’s grin became, if anything, even nastier. “I heard it wasn’t just an attempt. I heard it was a success.”

That left me speechless. Was the secret of synchro monsters already out? Damn; I was at least hoping to climb the ranks some before anyone else caught on. I sighed. “Yes, sir. Can I ask who we’ll be facing?”

“Jaden Yuki, and Syrus Truesdale.”

Shit.

“Oh, buck. They’re just a pair of Slifer Slimes; even a Ra Yellow would be able to take them on. And I have something to motivate you two to fight. If you win, your detentions are voided. If you lose, then you’ll have to take twice as many.” Crowler barked out a laugh. “Make me proud. The Duel will be in the main arena, thirty minutes from now. dismissed”

Sadao and I walked off. Okay, this wasn’t that bad. The stakes weren’t super high, and anyways, only Jaden was actually worth worrying about. I still had PTSD from the metagames where Dark Law and Absolute Zero were common, but at this point his ace was something stupid like Flame Wingman or whatever. I told Sadao as much, and he nodded.

“Yeah. Jaden’s definitely a threat, but I think you can beat him with your new summoning methods. I’ve already defeated Syrus myself in a friendly duel, so he’s not an issue either.”

“What does he play, by the way?” I honestly had no clue; Out of the main characters, I remembered Jaden’s HEROs, Chazz’s Ojamas, and Zane’s Cyber Dragons from the GX era, and that was it.

“Roids. Machine type monsters with a bunch of fusions and some good battle phase effects, but nothing in the way or removal effects.”

“Got it. I’ve got the perfect card for them, then.” I showed him my [Blackwing Armor Master]

“You sure you can summon him? I remember what happened when you tried to summon [Blackwing Full Armor Master].”

“Yeah, no sweat. He’s just level seven, and he’s the miniboss, not the actual boss.” Well, there would be some sweat, but I was confident that I could still bring him out.

“Got it. What do we do for strategy?”

“Here’s what I’m thinking. I can pretty much guarantee that I’ll get him out, which means that if he’s the only monster on the field, they can’t do any damage to us until they get monster removal on board. So focus on being our backrow support instead of summoning monsters.”

Sadao smiled. “Got it. Floodgates to stop their fusion summons, and MIRROR FORCES to punish them for attacking.”

I winced at his sudden volume. “Dude, you are way too attached to those cards.”

“What can I say man, they just make the whole field go BOOM!”

I shook my head, long used to his antics. We discussed strategies and read each others’ cards until we reached the duel arena.

We reached the duel arena before Syrus and Jaden did and were forced to stand around awkwardly as it filled up with spectators. I hadn’t expected nearly as many people to be present; this was nothing like having the occasional duelist watch over my shoulder at locals. Some of them even looked... Kind of angry? They were shooting us nasty looks and everything.

Jaden and Syrus finally made their appearance, trailing Crowler.

“Students of Duel Academy!” Crowler announced. “I’ve called you here to witness the expulsion of Jaden Yuki and Syrus Truesdale, which will be the inevitable conclusion of them losing this duel.”

Aw, crap. There were some pretty big stakes on the line after all. And card game protagonists typically performed at their best when they had something to lose. Though maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing. Jaden had a yandere stalker and some big destiny he had to fulfill; if I knocked him out of Duel Academy now, the fate of the entire world could be at risk.

Jaden laughed. “You wish, Crowler. These guys look like they couldn’t duel their way out of a paper sack.”

You know what? I’d never believed in destiny anyways. I was going to teach this arrogant motherfucker a lesson.

I sneered at the pair of canon characters, and Sadao matched me. We walked to our side of the field while Crowler explained the rules.

He turned to the crowd and began to ham it up. “Today, you will all have the occasion to see a Tag Duel. For those of you who didn’t pay much attention to your Freshman Dueling Class--” he shot a smug look to some fat kid in Ra colors, “--in a tag duel, the players on each team will be able to share the resources on their fields and graveyards, as well as their lifepoint totals, but will have their own separate hands and deck. Turn order will alternate between different teams. No attacks can be called for the first three turns. Players cannot coordinate plans with their ally, and cannot reveal information invisible to their opponents, like the names of any face down cards. ”

Crowler displayed a coin to the arena. “On heads, the Ra Yellows will choose who goes first. On tails, the choice will go to Jaden and Syrus.” He flipped the coin. “Heads!”

Damn. I’d hope to go fourth. But in this case, my next best option was to be first.

“I’ll go first!” I announced, to scattered cheers from other Ra Yellows in the audience. Good to see my dorm, at least, had my back. We activated our dueldisks, and the battle was on.

In my hand, I had [Blackwing - Bora the Spear], [Blackwing - Auster the South Wind], [Blackwing - Simoon the Poison Wind], [Blackwing - Kris the Crack of Dawn], and a [Mirror Force].

“Draw!”

[Blackwing - Gladius the Midnight Sun] joined my hand.

I entertained visions of spamming the field with blackwings to end on Full Armor Master, Hawk Joe, and Armor Master. But knowing how much even a single synchro summon took out of me, I couldn’t afford to go for broke. My best option was to set up a single Synchro as a defensive measure, and then synchro summon again later in the duel to clinch victory.

And I knew exactly which synchro to summon.

“From my hand, I activate the effect of [Blackwing - Simoon the Poison Wind], banishing [Blackwing - Kris the Crack of Dawn] to place a [Black Whirlwind] from my deck onto the field. Then, as the effect resolves, normal summon Simoon without tributing.”

I grinned as the menacing black bird appeared on the field.

“Since I summoned a Blackwing Monster with Whirlwind on the field, I get to search for a monster with less attack than Simoon’s 1600 and add it to my hand. I choose [Blackwing - Oroshi the Squall]. Then, since I have a blackwing with a different name on the field, I can special summon Oroshi from my hand to the field.”

A little black bird joined its much larger cousin. I took a deep breath, which Jaden took as an excuse to banter. In a cheery voice, he said, “What’ve you got for us, a Fusion monster?” I had to hand it to him; for all that he was playing for his spot at school, Jaden was still managing to have fun.

“Fusion monsters are obsolete.” I relished the shock on his face for a moment, before returning my attention to the duel. “Level one tuner: Oroshi. Level six nontuner: Simoon. Synchro summon!” my monsters disappeared, replaced six points of light moving through a green ring.

“[Blackwing Armor Master]!”

My favorite miniboss entered the field, it’s imposing black-clad figure hovering over the floor.

I heard a racket come from the crowd watching us, as people gasped and said things like ‘but no ones ever been able to summon  _ him _ before!” I was hard pressed to enjoy the adulation; it took all I had to stay on my feet.

“I’ll set one spell or trap card face down and end my turn. Boom! In the end phase, Black Whirlwind is sent to the graveyard and we take 1000 points of damage.” Sadao and I winced as our lifepoint counter ticked down. “Your move, Slifers.”

Jayden took a look at Syrus, who was all but quaking in his boots. Heh, it looked like the pathetic Roid player was almost ready to give up already.

“I’ll go second, then!” said Jaden. “Seeing you play like that has got me all fired up!”

Ugh, save me from shonen protagonists and their cheesy battle dialog.

“Draw!”

There was no hesitation between adding the card to his hand and him beginning to play; a mark of his talent as a duelist.

“I normal summon [Elemental Hero - Burstinatrix and set one spell or trap card face down and end my turn. Your move, Sadao!”

The part of me from the other world wondered what the protagonist could be plotting. The part of me from this world was more interested in trash talk.

“You say you’re fired up, and then only manage to summon a tiny little empire. Weak!”

I laughed at my own joke. It was funny because Burstinatrix was both weak and a fire time. Get it?

Jaden merely made an enigmatic smile in response.

“Draw!” said Sadao.

We traded a look. He nodded. “I’ll play pot of greed, which allows me to draw a number of cards from my deck. That number being two! Boom! Then, I’ll set three cards and end my turn. Boom!”

We kept our faces straight, but spiritually we were fistbumping. The ‘Boom’s we added to the end of our phrases was no innocuous verbal tic; it was a secret code. Each ‘boom’ represented a mirror force. I’d told him about mine, and he’d told me about his. Mine and one of his had been set, redundancy against a [Mystical Space Typhoon] or other spot removal. The third one, I knew, would stay in his hand to avoid overextension against a marauding [Heavy Storm] or (if our enemies were somehow rich enough to own one) a [Harpie’s Feather Duster].

“My turn, then, said Syrus.” His voice was shaky, but something in it was firm.

“I’ll draw a card. Then, I’ll play [Graceful Charity] and draw another three cards.”

Sometimes, I really lamented the lack of a banlist. Also, I’d forgotten to include my own copy in my deck, which was giving me major sour grapes.

Syrus discarded an [Armoroid] and [Truckroid]. He spent a moment observing his hand, before shooting a glance to Zane Truesdale, his brother, who was lurking on the top floor of the auditorium. 

“Then, I’ll set a spell or trap card.” Setting a card this early in his turn? Strange; most duelists did that as slate as possible. Maybe he was just a bad player? “Now, I’ll activate the field spell card [Megaroid City]!”

Struts, piers, and machinery covered his side of the field like some sort of cancerous industrial growth.

“I’ll activate [Megaroid City] to target one card I control; my facedown. Then, I’ll chain my facedown card to [Megaroid City]’s activation. Go, [Mystical Space Typhoon], destroy Nick’s facedown card!”

I grimaced as my mirror force was swept away. No biggie, Sadoa still had his own copies.

“Then, [Megaroid City]’s effect activates, destroying [Mystical Space Typhoon] and allowing me to add 1 “roid” card from my deck to my hand. I choose [UFOroid].”

Smart; even though Megaroid City had “destroyed” his MST, he’d still managed to destroy a card. A 2-for-2 this turn, and now his field spell was set up to provide more utility. My estimation of Syrus’s skills rose a notch.

“Then, I’ll play the spell card [Giant Trunade] to return all spell and trap cards on the field to the hand!”

A face howled in the center of a storm, and Sadao’s facedowns were sent back to his hand, alongside Jaden’s single card. The pit in my stomach intensified. Giant Trunade, strictly speaking, only cost your opponents a single turn without facedowns. But a single turn was all a one turn kill needed.

“Then, I’ll normal summon [Mixeroid]. I activate his effect, allowing me to tribute summon a machine type monster to special summon 1 non-WIND ‘roid’ monster from my deck. I choose [Expressroid]! And when [Expressroid] enters the field, I get to add two “roid” monsters from my graveyard to my hand. I choose [Armoroid] and [Truck Roid]!

And that play had been a +2. Things were deteriorating, and fast.

Syrus took his own deep breath. But what came out next wasn’t aimed at me or Sadao, but at his brother. “Zane, you told me I wasn’t a strong enough duelist to play this card. You were wrong!”

This was some drama I completely lacked the confidence for. It sort of made me wish I’d watched Yugioh GX at any point in the last six years.

“I activate the spell card [Power Bond], which allows me to Fusion Summon 1 Machine Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck, using monsters from my hand and field as Fusion Materials! [Armoroid], [Truckroid], [Carrierroid], [Expressroid], [UFOroid]. It’s morphin time!”

Syrus dumped his entire hand and field into the graveyard, save for his field spell. Meanwhile, I tried to avoid panicking. What kind of crazy monster had five fusion materials? (Besides five-headed-dragon, of course, natch.)

“Come out! [Barbaroid, the Ultimate Battle Machine]!”

A titanic machine of red steel emerged from the swirl of the fusion summoning, a four thousand attack beast. And then things got worse.

“When I fusion summon a monster with Power Bond, it gains attack equal to its original attack!”

Barbaroid’s attack power ticked up to a colossal 8000, and I nearly soiled my pants. What the hell was this card? I hadn’t bothered reading ahead in Professor Stein’s curriculum and memorizing the ‘roid’ monsters, so until now I had no clue it even existed. What was it going to do next? Wipe my field? Force me to discard my hand?

“Battle Phase!” said Syrus.

Oh, nevermind. It was just a beatstick. I felt my confidence coming back. Thank you, Sadao, for preparing us for this exact strategy.

“Go, Barbadroid! Attack his [Blackwing Armor Master]! Hyper-mechanical turbo-overdrive smash!” I grinned. Naming his attacks. How childish.

The enormous machine sprung into action, launching a fist of red steel directly into my Blackwing.

Armor Master held the titan back with a single finger.

“[Blackwing Armor Master] can’t be destroyed by battle, and I take no damage from battles involving it,” I said, smug.

“Eat it, loser!” Sadao chipped in.

Syrus grimaced, before his expression went back to a smile. “Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice…”

Barbadroid flashed a bright white, and beeping noises filled the arena. Armor Master was reduced to a wireframe.

“After damage calculation, Barbadroid negates the effects of any monster it battles. And guess what!? Barbadroid can attack twice battle phase! Go, Barbadroid, destroy his Armor Master!”

The machine launched another punch, and this one was not stopped as easily.

“Aah!”

Sadao and I cried out in unison as we lost a whopping 5500 life points to a single attack, leaving us with a mere 500 remaining. I didn’t collapse, but only because Syrus was evidently incapable of putting any personal animosity into his attacks. Had it been Nadja facing me, that damage would have had me bleeding from my nose and ears. Instead, I was merely forced down to one knee.

“And with that, I end my turn, and lose life equal to the amount of attack the monster summoned by [Power Bond] gained. Your move, Nick!”

“Nice one, Syrus, I knew you could do it!”

Even as their life points ticked down by 4000, leaving them with just 4000 left, smiles stayed on their faces.

It was hopeless, I knew. These were anime protagonists, destined to win no matter the odds. Why even try? No matter how hard I tried, they would just topdeck the precise amount of bullshit required to kill me.

“Come on Nick, get the fuck up! For the glory of Ra!” Sadao shouted at me. And then, to my surprise, others joined in the chant.

“For the glory of Ra! For the Glory of Ra!”

I felt the warm hand on my back, as my heart swelled with pride. I could do this. I had to. Ra dorm has always been ignored as a place where mediocre duelists come from; a dorm that produced the kind of duelists that could place in tournaments, but not win them. No more. Intelligence, not just sheer duel power, should rule the duel world!

I stood. “Draw!”

A [Pot of Greed]. Perfect. I felt a laugh bubble up from inside of me.

“I activate the card that lets me take two cards from my deck and then add them to my hand through the process of drawing. [Pot of Greed]!”

[Allure of Darkness], [Blackwing - Kris the Crack of Dawn].

It was time for my anime comeback.

“I play [Allure of Darkness], which lets me draw two cards.”

Another [Blackwing - Bora the Spear], and a [Heavy Storm]. It was… not a disappointment, per se, but not what I needed, either. The doubts began to rise.

“Now, I have to banish a DARK monster from my hand. I choose [Blackwing - Bora the Spear].”

I took one last look in my hand. I had the pieces I needed. Normal summon [Blackwing - Auster the South Wind] to special summon [Blackwing - Kris the Crack of Dawn] from the banished zone.Special summon [Blackwing - Bora the Spear] from my hand, and the other copy of Kris, using their summoning conditions. Auster and Kris would synchro summon [Black-Winged Dragon]; Auster and [Black-Winged Dragon] would combo to burn for 700 and reduce Elemental Hero Burstinatrix to 500 attack. And then I’d bring out my secret weapon. The one XYZ monster I’d included in the extra deck on a passing whim: [Castel, the Skyblaster Musketeer]. Bora and the second copy of Kris would overlay to bring him out; he’d send Barbadroid back to the extra deck. [Black-Winged Dragon] and Castel would attack for game.

“I normal summon [Blackwing - Auster the South Wind]. When I do so, Auster’s effect lets me target one of my banished Blackwing monsters and special summon it to the field in defense position. I choose you, Kris!”

Two birds appeared on my field in rapid succession. One, a cheery yellow bird of paradise. Another, a menacing blue-feathered warrior holding a sword.

“Level four tuner: Auster. Level four nontuner: Kris. Synchro Summon!”

The audience chants intensified. I didn’t have the heart to tell them I was letting them down.

“Come forth, [Black-Winged Dragon]!”

My vision went black. The stage disappeared, and in its place, the [Crimson Dragon] coiled around me. A voice that could destroy mountains spoke. “Unworthy.”

Black fire consumed me from the inside. It had been the height of arrogance to summon a Signer Dragon, and I was paying for my sins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Decks Used: https://imgur.com/a/HPWg4T9
> 
> In the original version of this chapter, Nick successfully summons Black-Winged Dragon, but is too weak to summon the XYZ. The final LP count for Jaden/Syrus is [0300], but Nick/Sadao are ultimately knocked out in Jaden's next turn by an Elemental HERO Gaia before Sadao can set another Mirror force and run away with the battle.


End file.
